The Baseball Gods must have been pleased with Barry Zito for taking the ball on 3 days rest and even more pleased when he took it again after a 2 and 1/2 hour rain delay. First they guided the Giants hitters to a 15 run offensive explosion of Mt St. Helens proportions and then the the BABIP Gods guided the rockets coming off the Tigers' bats right into the gloves of waiting Giants fielders. Credit to the fielders for making several good plays. Key Lines:
Emmanuel Burriss- 2 for 6. BA= .241. Burriss got the first inning rally going with a sharp groundball single through the right side.
Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 5, HR(7), BB. BA= .294. Pablo drove in the first runs with a drive to left-center which cleared the original LF wall by a wide margin.
Aubrey Huff- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .244. Huff needs to do more of what he did tonight. Stay within himself and not try to win it all by himself.
Nate Schierholtz- 2 for 4, BB. BA= .274. Nate is a guy who seems to have learned to stay within himself. He's become more patient at the plate and has become a great two strike hitter.
Brandon Crawford- 3 for 4, HR(2), BB. BA= .221. Crawford had been getting good AB's lately. It seemed like only a matter of time last night and he sure came through big time tonight. He looks mighty good up there at the plate right now.
Miguel Tejada- 2 for 5, HR(3). BA= .230. Miggy is hitting .257 with 2 dingers in his last 10 games. He started a couple of nifty DP's from his 3B position tonight too.
Eli Whiteside- 1 for 3, 2B, 2 BB. BA= .219. Whitey is hitting .258 over his last 10 games with an OBP of .361. At this point, I don't think Sabes needs to spend a trade chip on a catcher. As I've said before, he's not getting Brian McCann or Joe Mauer anyway. Eli and CStew are as good as anything he'll get on the trade market.
Barry Zito- 6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K. ERA= 3.81. Zito deserves all the credit in the world for taking the ball on 3 days rest and then taking it again after a 2 1/2 hour rain delay after he had pitched 2 innings, but the BABIP Gods were really smiling on him out there as he gave up some shots that went right at people and his fielders, mainly Miggy Tejada made some nifty defensive plays behind him. I have no idea how Zito does as well as he does throwing that stuff up in the zone like that, but if he throws like that in his next start, don't expect to see 6 shutout innings.
The Win enabled the Giants to maintain their 3 game lead in the NL West over the D'Backs who topped the A's 4-2. The Rockies also kept pace, 6.5 games behind with a 9-6 win over the KC Royals. The Padres edged the Mariners 1-0 to stay 10 games back and climb into 4'th place over the Desperate Dodgers who lost to the Angels of Anaheim 7-1 to fall 11 games back.
Ryan Vogelsong tries to pitch the Giants to a sweep tomorrow facing Rick Porcello. He has struggled in his last several starts. He's an extreme contact pitcher who depends on getting a lot of ground balls. His GO/AO has dropped steadily since his rookie season in 2009 though, from 1.88 to 1.45 to 1.18 this year. There are still some Giants fans out there who are sore at Brian Sabean for not drafting him and paying a huge signing bonus in 2007. Not that he hasn't been a decent pitcher for the Tigers already, but his career is heading in a direction you would hope to get more out of with a huge signing bonus. Having said all that, watch the Giants offense go back into the tank against him tomorrow.
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Dang A's, good for nothing.
ReplyDeleteWe had no need for Porcello, we would have paid all that money for average performance, plus we parlayed that pick into Franchez anyway. I do not think Porcello would have gotten us much more.
people are pissed at sabean for not throwing money at porcello?
ReplyDeletehe is the type of pitcher that would succeed in the nl west...but comeon...look at the giants rotation...
huge props to zito...way to step up...i wont say anything negative about him for at least another month
im starting to think that the giants may very well be able to afford keeping both cain and timmy...if they continue drafting and developing position players, the way they have since 08
the d looks great...the bats looked great tonite, but im not gonna go all hog wild...tiger's o is very good...their pitching outside of verlander...not so much
They aren't going to score 15 runs a game, but if everybody can stay healthy, I think this offense can be adequate in the second half. Heck Freddy Sanchez is even starting to cautiously swing a bat!
ReplyDeleteI was watching the game on mlb.tv and I just have to say props to Brandon Inge. In a 15-0 ballgame, Chris Stewart hit one sharply down the left field line and Inge, who was playing off the line, laid out like he was trying to seal a no hitter or get the last out of the World Series.
ReplyDeleteYeah, there were a contingent of Giants fans who thought the Giants should have selected Porcello with the Alderson pick. I think given his difficulties in the majors so far speaks to why the Giants didn't want to pay him that much as a bonus.
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